Photos of Ghaziabad cops found in gangster’s phone, mole in department suspected

The police, besides recovering a large cache of arms and ammunition, recovered nearly a dozen photographs of police officers from Meerut zone, including personnel of the UP Special Task Force, from the smartphones of the accused.

A police official displays a photo found on the smartphone.(Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The Ghaziabad police suspect a leak in the department after finding photographs of police officials who were investigating criminal cases in the smartphone of a wanted man who was arrested on Monday. The police suspect that the personnel could have been targets of the group.

The Ghaziabad police arrested Sumit Jat, carrying a reward of Rs50,000, and his aide, Ashu Chaddha, following a gunbattle near Raispur early Monday. The police and the accused exchanged nearly 39 rounds of fire.

While Chaddha has seven cases of heinous crimes, including murder and attempt to murder, against his name, Sumit has 11 such cases lodged against him. The accused were carrying a carbine, two 9mm pistols, a gun, live cartridges in the Nissan Terrano car they were travelling in. The car was also allegedly stolen.

The police, besides recovering a large cache of arms and ammunition, recovered nearly a dozen photographs of police officers from Meerut zone, including personnel of the UP Special Task Force, from the smartphones of the accused.

“We recovered nearly a dozen photographs of police officers, including Ghaziabad SSP, who were tracking the gang and investigating them, from their smartphones. It is suspected that these officials were their targets. Conversely, the gang members could have also been trying to evade these officers. We can reach a conclusion only after taking the two on custodial remand,” said Deepak Kumar, senior superintendent of police, Ghaziabad.

“However, we have got information that the photographs were provided by some police personnel from the force, who were in touch with the gang. We have recommended an inquiry about such moles to the inspector general’s office. The gang members were also avoiding making calls from their mobile phones and communicated through messages and voice recordings on WhatsApp,” Kumar said.

Sumit is stated to be ‘shagird’ (follower) of one Sushil Fauji, of Sarurpur in Meerut, who had a previous rivalry with another gangster, Yogesh Bhadoda, from the same village. Officials said that there have been several instances of murders during gang fights between the two groups.

“Apart from the pictures, we have also recovered dozens of call recordings, including those of Fauji, in which murder plans are discussed. Fauji is posted with the army at Ambala and we are writing to the authorities concerned about his activities. Sumit had planned to carry murder Bhadoda, who is in jail, at the Ghaziabad district court and was in touch with the Sundar Bhati gang to procure an AK-47,” Kumar said.

The officials said that during Holi and a couple of days ago, Fauji and Sumit met Sundar Bhati at Hamirpur jail. It is stated that Bhati had promised to provide them with an AK-47 to attack Bhadoda and in exchange, wanted them to kill a witness in a case against him.